March 16, 2008
GREENSBORO, Ga. - The Purdue men's golf team finished tied for 13th in the Linger Longer Invitational in Greensboro, Ga. The Boilermakers were playing in their second tournament in less than a week, taking advantage of a respite from classes due to spring break. Purdue finished tied with Mississippi State with a team score of 908 (312-298-298).
No. 26 Mississippi (277-292-287=856) won the event by five strokes over top-ranked Georgia (284-291-286=861) and No. 17 Chattanooga (278-298-292=868) finished third.
Maximo Kopp and Michael Randle shared low round honors for the Boilermakers on Sunday, each carding a 73 in the final round. Kopp finished tied for 36th with a total of 225 (78-74-73), while Randle tied for 40th at 227 (78-76-73). For the tournament Purdue's David Gersztein had the highest finish, tying for 25th with a 222 (75-72-75).
Freshman Erich Johnston fired a 238 (85-76-77) to finish 71st and Keith Shanks slipped to 74th with a three-round total of 244 (81-79-84).
Robbie Greenwell (68-68-72=208) of Memphis hung onto his second-round advantage to take individual medalist honors by three shots over second-place Joel Sjoholm of Georgia State. Mississippi's David Marino, Clemson's Phillip Mollica and Chattanooga's Derek Rende each shot Sunday's best round as both fired three-under 69's.
The third annual Linger Longer Invitational was hosted by Mercer and was held at the par-72, 6,985-yard Reynolds Landing Golf Course in Greensboro, Ga.
The Boilermakers return to action March 29 and 30 at the Hoosier Invitational in Bloomington, Ind.